Super Plane Jupyter - Dead Sea City

This was a huge city, extremely grand and imposing. In fact, it was even grander than the City of Liberty. Sprawling mansions, huge entertainment venues, prestigious institutions and families - this city had it all. There were several areas of tourist attraction, several unique places and geographies encompassed within the city halls. Countless casinos, auction halls, treasure gambling dens were situated all around. There was even a lavish red light area. All in all, the city was a huge mixture of structures and institutions without any semblance of order. This was also expected as the Divine Sea Sect was a true sect which completely rejected any clans or bloodline privileges. Thus, through the course of history, several experts were in command of the subsidiary powers. As each of these experts set up their legacies, countless powerful families were established in the city of Dead Sea. Any random building could be the ancestral home of an esteemed upper-ascendant. It was a city with crouching tigers and hidden dragons abound.

Divine Sea Sect was established in the name of Divine Sea Divinity. But she was not the only divinity around. Her current husband was known to be a divinity himself. Many other students and retainers who had reached the divine realm with time had also remained in the same sect and not gone to establish their own sects, mostly because of Divine Sea's power. Being associated with a six-star divinity was actually extremely beneficial to the new and upcoming divinities. As a result, the Divine Sea Sect was a true super force - unlike the Black Lotus Sect or the Sky Splitter Sect. In fact, even in other dominions, Divine Sea Sect was a well-renowned force that people took seriously. It was a behemoth that could shake the entire dominion with its stomp. It was also the most powerful human sect in this dominion. It was not wrong to say that the Divine Sea Sect was the pride and pillar of the entire human race. Countless talents wished to become disciples of the sect. This was the reason that the sect took an entrance test every 10 years. Of course, only the best of best could enter the sect. But many other talents, even if they could not manage to get into the main sect, could join the seven smaller seas. Dead sea was one of the smaller seas. It was a high-tier force by itself. In fact, the leader of the Dead Sea was a divinity himself - a retainer of Divine Sea Divinity since her younger days.

The entrance test of the Divine Sea Sect screened for talents. The screening was based on a simple method - combat. The age brackets were limited to the following:

50 years - the average level of contestants was conception realm with a small percentage in the condensation realm.

500 years - the average level of condensation realm with a small percentage as demi-ascendants and extremely few ascendants.

5000 years - the average level of demi-ascendants with a small percentage of lower-ascendants.

50000 years - the average level of ascendants with a small percentage of upper-ascendants.

Beyond 50000 years of age, one could only enter by contributing significantly to the sect. After all, someone who had cultivated for more than 50000 years was expected to be a master in their own right - someone like Killian Marx, if they wanted to join the sect. This bracket had been created by the Divine Sea Sect after considering many points.

First of all, below the age of 50, countless talents emerged and one needed to find them continuously to maintain the main force of the sect. These were the nominal disciples of the sect. After one became a condensation realm expert, or when one had the combat capability matching one, one was expected to become an outer disciple. Ascendants were taken in as inner disciples. Experts like Gordon Marx or Roamer Ritz were taken in as core disciples. And only upper ascendants like Killian could become legacy disciples. If one became a peak upper-ascendant, one would cease being a disciple and would be made an elder. Then, one would start having a say in the matters of the sect and correspondingly the entire dominion. Each elder of the sect was known to be a terrifying figure - someone who could overwhelm the entire Liberty Federation on their own. If one reached the divine realm, one became a Grand Elder. Then, one would usually be involved in all the major decisions of the sect. The Grand-elders would mostly be involved in their own cultivation and would have little to do with the outside world. Of course, there was only one Supreme Elder - Divine Sea Divinity herself.

Meanwhile, people would constantly reach their potential and have trouble progressing. Such people were delegated different roles in the sect and were made as teachers in the different sections of the sect. For example, if an ascendant inner disciple reached his potential and became unable to progress, they would lose their discipleship and would join the outer sect as a teacher.

The subsidiary powers had their own structure which was extremely similar to the main sect but only lagged behind by a level. That means, that an outer disciple of the main sect would be equivalent in status and power to the inner disciples of the subsidiary powers. The tests were open to all and even the disciples of subsidiary forces could apply. Of course, the competition for the below 50-year bracket was conducted every 10 years, below 500-year was conducted every 100 years and so on.

This allowed the sect to maintain a constant flow of talents into the sect and maintained their size at a manageable level. This also ensured that only the best of the best could join the sect. For example, while in the below 50-year bracket, there were mostly conception realm candidates, none of them would be selected if they did not have alternate methods. The combat ability of the selected nominal students stood at the level of condensation realm. And outer disciples had to be demi-ascendant as least. As celestials were seen as shining geniuses, the requirements were easier for them. Currently, the test for the below-50 bracket was about to start. As a result, many cultivators were making their way to the seven sea cities across the plane.

While the entrance test decided the disciples who were going to be selected, it also decided many other things. For example, one's status, discipleship level and the allocation of resources. Thus, no one wanted to be left behind. The selection was no longer relevant for the supreme geniuses. It was the rank that they could obtain that decided their future achievements. The number of supreme geniuses appearing was definitely not small. Especially, the current iteration was expected to be even more competitive.

In the city square, many young cultivators had gathered as they roamed around the city taking in the scenes and grandeur. In a restaurant, several people were gathered having their lunch. The suns were shining in the sky making buildings like restaurants with centralized temperature control popular nodes for gathering. All these cultivators were mostly in the conception realm but stronger people were present as well and even a few ascendants were mixed in. On a table, a group of disciples were discussing heatedly

I have heard that the divine daughter Alexis is also applying this time. She has a divine bloodline, I wonder how strong she would currently be. I reckon that even weaker ascendants would not be her match. I am her supporter. May she reach the first rank in the test.

What nonsense are you speaking? She is not the only divine child entering the test. There are many others, divine son Harry, divine daughter Elena and so many more who have not made their appearence. Dvine daughter Alexis is the youngest - only 12 years old. How would she win?

You might be right but divine daughter Alexis has the sacred destroyer bloodline. It is supposed to be one of the strongest human bloodlines. We can't say for sure!

What use is talking about such beings? They are way out of our reach. Let's focus on the Dead Sea Sect's priliminaries. I have heard that the top 10 people would get to practise in a temporal accelerated dimension so that they can be at their best when they go into the final test. Apart from that, they have even said that the top 3 can choose any of the Mortal Stage manuals found in the Sect along with many resources. And the top person can choose one of the following - a life treasure, a bloodline or a psychic ability imprinted on their conscient. All the three are things to die for! I can only envy the one who would rank top in the preliminaries.

What do you think would be Senior brother Ross' rank? I reckon he would be in top 3 in the preliminaries. He would be easily taken in as an outer disciple and perhaps even an inner disciple in the Dead Sea Sect.

While the conversation was proceeding, a figure approached the table. He clasped his hands and said:

Fellow cultivators, I just overheard your conversation about the several prizes that were offered after the preliminary test. Might I ask, what is a life treasure?

Of course, the one asking the question was Michael. He already knew what a temporally accelerated domain was - something similar to law lake in Aterna. He also knew what bloodlines were. Even weakest bloodlines were immensely beneficial to cultivators. Michael did not have any bloodline, so he naturally had an interest in that as well. As for an imprinted psychic ability, Michael again knew what it was. His perfect persona blessing was a similar psychic ability imprinted directly to his conscient by the plane-will. But he was still not in know about a life-treasure.

The cultivators looked at each other before the senior brother Ross said

Brother, a life-treasure is a treasure that is bound to your conscient. It has the ability to reside in your conscient and you can summon it as and when you want. And it can be broken but not be destroyed. It will only be destroyed when you die. Also, as it is your life-treasure, as you grow stronger, the treasure also grows stronger. Cultivators generally choose a suitable weapon as their life-treasure. After all, as one's cultivation increases, it costs more and more to have a fitting weapon. Life-treasures solve this problem. But as life-treasures are able to grow, they are quite rare as well. It is extremely uncommon among regular cultivators. But all powerful cultivators, like upper ascendants have one.

Michael : Thank you, brother. You have solved my query. I assume that such a treasure is not cheap at all. I guess I can only try my best to obtain it.

Of course, we can all only try our best.

Michael then clasped his hands and went ahead. The cultivators sitting on the table looked at his back sneering.

"Try my best", hehe. That guy thinks that he can get the first place? Even though the divine children would not make an appearence before the final test, it doesn't mean that anyone can top the preliminaries. But what can I say, this is a gathering of dreams and aspirations. That guy will have his heart broken and then he will understand reality.

Yeah. But it is nice to have hope. Since he has hope, at least he will strive. Though there is no way for him to succeed.

As the conversations proceeded, only Ross was silent. He was still looking at the gate Michael had left from. He had a feeling that the guy he just met was not a simple person. But he did not dwell on his feeling too much. If the guy was someone good enough, he would be facing himself sooner or later.